Ask Tom Why: Has Chicago's high temperature ever been the highest in the nation on that day?

June 03, 2010

Dear Tom,

Has Chicago's high temperature ever been the highest in the nation on that day?

—Larry Mayerhofer

Dear Larry,

It has not. Nor has Chicago ever registered the nation's lowest temperature. The National Weather Service releases a daily list of the nation's highest and lowest temperatures in the 48 contiguous states (Alaska and Hawaii are excluded) and Chicago has never appeared on it. Many would say that's fortunate because those temperatures are, at the very least, usually uncomfortably hot or cold. On the very rare occasions when Chicago's temperatures are either so hot or so cold they might challenge the national extremes on any given day, some other Midwestern city invariably registers a more extreme value. When Chicago is hot, a few cities elsewhere in Illinois or Indiana are usually hotter; on frigid winter days, it's usually colder in Wisconsin.